Buffing brush



W. F. BUEHRLE BUFFING BRUSH March 7, 1961 Filed Jan. 17, 1958 Fig. 3

INVENTOR.

William F Buehr/e A T TORNEYS United States Fatent l BUFFING BRUSH William F. Buehrle, 3479 Osceola Drive, Muskegon, Mich.

Filed Jan. 17, 1958, Ser. No. 709,527

4 Claims. (Cl. -179) This invention rel-ates to an abrading apparatus for polishing, cleaning or bufiing the exterior of rods or tubes. More particularly, this invention relates to an inside brush and buffing wheel into which is inserted the rod or tube to be cleaned or polished.

Various types of polishers, buffers and cleaners are in existence. Some of these devices use abrading disks with wire bristles extending through a circumferentially disposed backing member, showing this type of disk to be old in the art of cleaning and polishing. However, all of these disks have the wire bristles extending straight on towards the point where they contact the rod or tube to be cleaned or polished. Utilization of this type of bufiing brush has shown that their useful life is relatively short, that is, the wire bristles are soon worn down so much that the brush no longer serves its intended purpose. This proves to be rather costly and time consuming to replace the abrading disk so that the work may be continued. It is an object of this invention to provide a bufiing brush which serves its function for a much greater period of time.

Another object of this invention is to provide such a brush which is very easy and economical to construct.

A further object of this invention is to provide such a brush which polishes and cleans as well as any standard abrading brush in addition to serving this function for a much greater length of time.

Other objects of this invention will become obvious upon reading the following specification in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, wherein:

Fig. 1 is a front elevational view of my inventio with certain parts thereof being broken away to better show certain features.

Fig. 2 is a cross sectional view of my invention taken along the plane II--I.I of Fig. 1.

Fig. 3 is a diagram illustrating the preferred angle of bend of the abrading elements.

Briefly, my invention is a bufling brush comprised of a circumferential backing member, with a plurality of abrading elements extending radially inwardly from this backing member and terminating short of the center thereof. Each of these abrading elements is bent at an angle with the direction of the force being applied to the work. It is because of the bending of each of these abrading elements in the same direction as the force being applied to the work that the increased work life of the brush is achieved.

Throughout this specification the word abrade and any related words are used to generically denote the art of buffing, cleaning or polishing or any other art of wearing or rubbing off by friction.

Referring to the drawings, the numeral designates an abrading element, preferably shaped somewhat like a staple. These elements are fabricated of abrasive material such as steel wire, nylon bristles, or any other type of material having abrasive qualities. The nature of the abrading element selected depends upon the type of work to be accomplished, that is, whether the work piece 2,973,539 Patented Mar. 7, 1961 is to be polished, buffed, or cleaned. These elements are driven through a suitable backing material 10.

The backing material is preferably a canvas like fabric, and consists of several layers or plies 11 so that greater strength and rigidity is obtained. The staple-shaped abrading elements 20 are slightly over one half as wide as the backing material 10, enabling them to be oifset from each other as they are driven into the backing material. Thus, as the pointed ends emerge through this material they form more of a solid abrading surface, thereby performing their particular function more effectively. In the embodiment of my invention shown by the drawings, the members 20 are arranged in three rows (6 rows of protruding ends) as shown by Fig. 2 thereby tripling the abrasive surface over that of a single row of such members.

Each-of the legs of the abrading elements 20 has a bend denoted by reference numeral 21. This particular bend is extremely important to my invention, as this produces a much longer work life for the brush. I have found that the preferred bend is at an angle of from 20 to 45 degrees from its normal straight position. This provides an obtuse angle less than 180 to between the supported and free ends. This obtuse angle lies on the side facing the relatively approaching work. Thus, the ends are bent in a direction denoted by arrow F in Fig. 1, this direction being in a direction toward the relatively approaching work. It will be evident that if the work piece is held stationary the brush rotates in a direction designated by D in Fig. 1 whereas if the brush is held stationary the work piece is rotated in the opposite direction.

The backing material 10 with the bent abrading elements 20 extending therethrough is then formed into a circumferential position with the ends of elements 20 extending radially inwardly as shown by Fig. 1. Elements 20 are of a length causing them to terminate on a cylindrical surface arranged around the center of the now circumferentially positioned backing member 10, leaving a space 22 into which the work piece is to be inserted. A solder material 30* is applied to the outside surface of the backing material 10, thereby giving morerigidity to the structure.

A ring-shaped cup 40 is fitted over one side of the circumferential backing member 10. This cup 40 is pref-- 1955, or any similar apparatus. A ring-shaped disk 41 fabricated of the same material as ring-shaped cup 40 is placed against the other side of the circumferential backing member and is secured thereto by bending over the edge 42 of cup 40, forming the flange 43 which holds disk 41 in position. The ring-shaped members 40 and 41 thus provide a casing or housing for the brush ele' ment and adapt the bufling brush to-be inserted in a buffing apparatus utilizing interchangeable brushes.

The theory behind the result produced by the bending of each leg of the abrading elements 20 is not entirely clear, however, the result itself is startling. Experiments have shown that a buifing brush of this type without the bends had a work life of approximately 250 to 300 parts,

that this difference in the length of the work life of a buffing brush is extremely beneficial to those concerned with this type of work.

The following is a suggested theory explaining why this particular bending produces a great increase in the a ree-s9 It work life of a buffing brush. Because the bend 21 in the legs of each abrading element 20 is in the same direction as the force acting against the work piece, there is a constant force exerted against each abrading element attempting to straig'htenthese elements out. My abrading elements cannot be bent until wear occurs because the mass of the work piece within the aperture 22 makes this impossible. Thus, as the elements are slowly worn down as the work continues, the ractive force exerted by the work piece tends to straighten elements 20.. Wear is thus compensated by bending of the elements. This bending continues to take place until the end of the elements reach a point where further bending will increase the size of opening 222. At this point, they will still properly function forla time equal to 'a brush having straight elements. This appears to be at least one of the reasons why my invention produces a buffing brush which has a very long work life.

Fig. 3 illustrates this theory by means of a diagram showing the bend desired to accomplish this result. This diagram shows one abrading element 20 bent through an exemplary angle A. As the element is bent through this angle, its end will travel along the path P shown. The circle C represents the aperture 22. Thus, it is noted that the element 20 can be straightened out by the reactive force equal and opposite to the force being applied to a workpiece only as the element is worn to the point where it no longer properly contacts the work piece. This point falls on the radius line R running from the bend in the element to the center of aperture 22. The angle B between the radius line R and the line B through the supported end portion of the abrading element embedded in the backing material is the preferred minimum a-ngleto which the elements 20 must be bent to accomplish the desired result of a long work life for the abradin'gbrush. A bend greater than this angle B, for example'angle A which is the complement of the angle between the supported end and free end (see Fig. 3), pro duces the desired result.

My buffing brush is very easily assembled and operated. Abrading elements 21} are driven through several layers of a canvas-like backing material 10. This can be accomplished by any one of several means, a stapler being easily adapted to eifectively position the staple shaped elements. The ends of the elements 20 are then bent to an angle between 20 and 45 degrees, the bending best accomplished by a die block base which co-acts with the apparatus used to drive theelements 20 through the backing material 10.

' The backing material is then formedinto a circumfere'ntial'shape, with the pointed ends of the stapleshaped abrading elements extending radially inward and terminating short of the center of the circumferentially shaped backing material 10, forming a central aperture 22. A'coat of solder is applied tothe outside surface of backing material 10 to give the structure more rigidity. Ring-shaped cup 40 is placed against one side of the structure and ring-shaped disk 41 is placed against the other side. The edge 42 is peened over to form flange 43 and thus secure both cup 40 and disk 41 to the structure, forming a casing or housing for the brush.

.My buffing brush is then rotatably mounted into an ap'paratus'utilizing interchangeable brushes. A stationary-work piece is inserted through the aperture 22 and the ends of elements 20 bulf, polish, or clean this work piece as the bulfing brush rotates in the direction shown by the arrow D in Fig. 1 about the stationary work piece. it should be obvious that if an apparatus is utilized in which the work piece is to be rotated inside a stationary brush element, the work piece must be rotated in the opposite direction of the arrow D. It should also be obviousthat such a buifing brush may be utilized without insertion into a power driven apparatus, and the same advantages would be obtained if the bufling brush were hand operated in a manner similar to that described herein.

I have disclosed a buifing brush which is very simple and also very economical to fabricate. My bufling brush operates as elfectively as the bufiing brushes which are old in the art of cleaning and polishing, however, it has a work life of up to twenty four times as long as present brushes. This very long work life results in a great saving of time and money over a period of time, these factors being of extreme importance to those working in the buffing and polishing arts.

Having described my invention, it should be understood that although I have shown and described one embodiment of this invention, it may be possible to practice the invention by altering it or adapting to other em bodiments. Such embodiments as do not depart from the scope of this invention are included within the spirit and scope of this invention unless not included within the language, or the equivalent thereof, of the following claims.

I claim:

1. A bufling brush adapted to abrade a work piece comprising a plurality of abrading elements each having a supported end supported on a peripheral collar and a free end extending inwardly from said collar and terminating on a cylindrical surface providing a space for receiving a work piece; said abrading elements being equally distributed around the periphery of said collar and having their free ends bent all in a same predetermined direction.

2. A bufling brush adapted to abrade a work piece comprising a plurality of staple-shaped abrading elements each having a supported end supported on 21 peripheral collar and a free end extending inwardly from said collar and terminating on a cylindrical surface providing a space for receiving a work piece; said abrading elements being equally distributed around the periphery of said collar and having their free ends bent all in a same predetermined direction; predetermined ones of said staple-shaped abrading elements being offset from predetermined others to provide a plurality of peripheral rows of said bent ends.

3. A buffing brush adapted to abrade a work piece comprising a plurality of abrading elements each having a supported end supported on a peripheral collar and a free end extending inwardly from said collar and terminating on a cylindrical surface providing a space for receiving a work piece; said abrading elements being References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 754,209 Ferguson Mar. 8, 1904 857,038 Dexter June 18, 1907 1,565,261 Cutler Dec. 15, 1925 1,838,958 Page Dec. 29, 1931 1,871,678 Ermold Aug. 16, 1932 FOREIGN PATENTS 881,625 Germany July 2, 1953 

